Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an Inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.[3] From the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and many members of his family became prominent residents of Chicago.

Although McCormick is credited as the "inventor" of the mechanical reaper, he based his work on that of many others, including Roman, Scottish and American men, more than two decades of work by his father, and the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family.[citation needed] Cyrus McCormick filed patents for the invention, and his achievements were chiefly in the development of a company, marketing and sales force to market his products.

Cyrus McCormick was born February 15, 1809 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He was the eldest of eight children born to inventor Robert McCormick, Jr. (1780–1846) and Mary Ann "Polly" Hall (1780–1853). As Cyrus' father saw the potential of the design for a mechanical reaper, he applied for a patent to claim it as his own invention. He worked for 28 years on a horse-drawn mechanical reaper to harvest grain; however, he was never able to reproduce a reliable version.

Cyrus took up the project.[4] He was aided by Jo Anderson, an enslaved African American on the McCormick plantation at the time.[5] A few machines based on a design of Patrick Bell of Scotland (which had not been patented) were available in the United States in these years. The Bell machine was pulled by horses. The McCormick design was pulled by horses and cut the grain to one side of the team.

Cyrus McCormick held one of his first demonstrations of mechanical reaping at the nearby village of Steeles Tavern, Virginia in 1831. He claimed to have developed a final version of the reaper in 18 months. The young McCormick was granted a patent on the reaper on June 21, 1834.[6]

Because the machine could not handle varying conditions, none were sold. The McCormick family worked together on starting a metal smelting business. The panic of 1837 almost caused the family to go into bankruptcy when a partner pulled out. In 1839 McCormick started doing more public demonstrations of the reaper, but local farmers still thought the machine was unreliable. He did sell one in 1840, but none for 1841.

Using the endorsement of his father's first customer for a machine built by McPhetrich, Cyrus continuously attempted to improve the design. He finally sold seven reapers in 1842, 29 in 1843, and 50 in 1844. They were all built manually in the family farm shop. He received a second patent for reaper improvements on January 31, 1845.[6]

As word spread about the reaper, McCormick noticed orders arriving from farther west, where farms tended to be larger. While he was in Washington, DC to get his 1845 patent, he heard about a factory in Brockport, New York, where he contracted to have the machines mass-produced.

In 1847, Cyrus and his brother Leander (1819–1900) moved to Chicago, where they established a factory to build their machines. At the time, other cities in the midwestern United States, such as Cleveland, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were more prosperous. Chicago had no paved streets at the time, but the city had the best water transportation from the east over the Great Lakes for his raw materials, as well as railroad connections to the farther west where his customers would be.[7]

When McCormick tried to renew his patent in 1848, the US Patent Office noted that a similar machine had already been patented by Obed Hussey a few months earlier. McCormick claimed he had really invented his machine in 1831, but the renewal was denied.[8] William Manning of Plainfield, New Jersey had received a patent for his reaper in May 1831, but at the time, Manning was evidently not defending his patent.[6]

McCormick's brother William (1815–1865) moved to Chicago in 1849, and joined the company to take care of financial affairs. The McCormick reaper sold well, partially as a result of savvy and innovative business practices.[4] Their products came onto the market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant markets. McCormick developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a wide network of salesmen trained to demonstrate operation of the machines in the field.

In 1851, McCormick traveled to London to display a reaper at the Crystal Palace Exhibition. He won a gold medal, but his celebration was short-lived after he learned that he had lost a court challenge to Hussey's patent.[10]

McCormick demanded that Manny stop producing reapers, and pay McCormick $400,000. The trial, originally scheduled for Chicago in September 1855, featured prominent lawyers on both sides. McCormick hired the former US Attorney General Reverdy Johnson and New York patent attorney Edward Nicholl Dickerson. Manny hired George Harding and Edwin M. Stanton. Because the trial was set to take place in Illinois, Harding hired the local Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln.

In 1861, Hussey's patent was extended but McCormick's was not. He decided to seek help from the US Congress to protect his patent.[14]

In 1879, brother Leander changed the name of the company from "Cyrus H. McCormick and Brothers" to "McCormick Harvesting Machine Company".[15] He wanted to acknowledge the contributions of others in the family to the reaper "invention" and company, especially their father.[5]

Cyrus McCormick's papers are held by the Wisconsin Historical Society.[3] Numerous prizes and medals were awarded for his reaper, and he was elected a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences "as having done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man."[citation needed] The invention of the reaper reduced human labor on farms while increasing productivity. It contributed to the industrialization of agriculture and migration of labor to cities in numerous countries.

The city of Plano, Illinois has regarded itself as the "Birthplace of the Harvester", with the local High School having the mascot of the Reapers, and the school using an image of the McCormick Harvester Reaper for its logo. Cyrus McCormick actually tested his harvesters in Plano, as well as having a small manufacturing facility in Plano, leading to the city's eventual industrial beginnings.

^ ab"Cyrus Hall McCormick". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 2007-08-26. Cyrus H. McCormick (1808-1883) was an industrialist and inventor of the first commercially successful raper, a horse-drawn machine to harvest wheat. He was born at the family farm (Walnut Grove) in Rockbridge County, Virginia on February 15, 1809. His father experimented with a design for a mechanical reaper from around the time of Cyrus' birth.

^"Cyrus H. McCormick Dead" (PDF). New York Times. May 14, 1884. Retrieved 2007-08-21. The Hon. Cyrus Hall McCormick died at his home in Chicago at 7 o'clock A.M. yesterday. He had been an invalid for the past three or four years, his troubles being caused by paralysis of the lower limbs. For two years he has not been able to walk.....